Moonstruck
by thesiriusmoon
Summary: Remus is ill, So Sirius cooks.


Moonstruck

Sirius Black was bored. This, all things considered, was not the end of the world. There were many worse things than being bored. Mushy peas, azaleas, mutton. War, for example, was worse. But Sirius was doing everything in his power these days not to think of the war, and being bored didn't help.

Usually when boredom struck Sirius would go bother Remus, but today that wasn't going to work. Not that he hadn't been sneaking into Remus' room every five minutes for the last two hours, but that was more of a mind easing exercise than a boredom cure. Remus was, sadly, dead to the world. It had been a bad moon.

After working out a particularly foul verse for 'Wizards Do It With Their Wands' (he and James had a bet on) practicing charms on the throughly shell shocked hamster (a strange creature Remus' great aunt had given them with absolutely no magical powers) and reading the first few pages of an old Martin Miggs comic, Sirius could stand it no longer. He got up and tip-toed silently into the bedroom.

Remus was curled tightly on one corner of the bed, his tawny hair the only thing visible over the blankets. Sirius crouched down beside him and ran his fingers gently through Remus' hair, smoothing it away from his sweaty face. Several nasty gashes ran along Remus' cheek and down over his nose, nearly splitting his lip in half. There were more, horrible deep red things, that Sirius knew were hiding under bandages. He knew because he had painstakingly salved and bandaged every one of them, tenderly brushing his lips across the worst ones. Some months were better than others, some worse. But every month Sirius was there to put his Moony back together again. Like that Dumpty fellow, the egg, on the ledge. And he was the kings horses. Or something like that.

Remus stirred slightly and his eyes fluttered.

"No, I don't want to go on the cart." He moaned.

"Shh Moony, it's alright. You're safe." Sirius began rubbing slow circles on his back.

"I don't know why they burned me with the cookies!"

Sirius snicked, wondering what on earth Moony could be dreaming about. And then he got it. The most brilliant idea he had ever had. He was going to cook for Remus. And not just soup from a tin, or those Ramen things. No, Sirius was going to cook a proper meal. With napkins and everything. A grin spread across his face, the same grin that every professor at Hogwarts had learned to dread. This was going to be brilliant!

He stood to leave, trying to be careful, but he must have nudged Remus because he uncurled slightly and cracked one eye.

"Was goin' on?"

"Nothing love." Sirius tried to hide his glee. "Go back to sleep."

Unfortunately Remus had a sixth sense for trouble.

"Know that look. What'cho up to?" He narrowed his eye, which was impressive, seeing as it had barely been open to begin with.

"Don't you worry your pretty little moonstruck head."

Remus goggled at him.

"Moonstruck?"

"Yeah. You know, all struck by the moon and stuff. That's you."

"Sirius." Remus managed to put on his Disapproving Professor face, despite being only half conscious. "Moonstruck has two meanings, and I don' think you're usin' either of them in the right context."

"Only you would use a word like context when you're ill." Sirius swooped down and kissed Remus on this end of his nose. "Go back to sleep, my moonstruck Moony. You'll have your surprise soon enough." And he skipped from the room.

As he was closing the door he heard something suspiciously like 'hate surprises' and 'Am I supposed to be mentally deranged or dreamily romantic?'

After pulling some strange muggle bills out of what Remus liked to call his "Rainy Day Fund", but which was actually an old coffee tin, Sirius shrugged into his leather jacket and headed out to the market. He walked briskly down the street, wanting to be back as soon as possible in case Moony needed him. There was a small grocers at the corner where they often stopped to by milk and tea and Sirius was very well known there. It was no secret that the girl behind the counter had taken quite a fancy to him, and he exploited it shamelessly. Moony often commented that it was good he wasn't the jealous type or the poor muggle would have been hexed by now.

"Sirius!" Lucy-or-Maybe-Linda tossed her hair. "Hi! You've not been round in ages!" She threw him her most winning smile.

"Hello again L..." He glanced at her nametag "Lyla! You're looking lovely as always!"

She blushed to the tips of her mousy brown hair. Sirius threw her a wink as he headed into produce. Now, what was he going to buy! Right after the moon Remus always seemed to want green things (something about balancing out the blood lust) so he headed for the veg section. There were all kinds of things floating around and Sirius had no idea where to begin. He wandered the aisle aimlessly, stopping to look at whatever caught his eye. He had already picked up two funny looking squash, some bright yellow beans, and a head of cabbage that looked like Peter when he spotted it. It was a very interestingly shaped green thing, just perfect for.... He smiled devilishly and read the label. Zucchini. Perfect. He bought five and headed back to his flat.

The kitchen was soon a mess of epic proportions. The simple task of cutting the vegetables into cookable portions had instantly become too much for Sirius. While he was the first to admit that he was brilliant at just about everything it seemed that cooking the muggle way was not one of those things. First off, while he now had several types of veg chopped into tiny pieces, he had no idea what to do with them. Did he boil them? Bake them? And if so, how? The strange metal 'oven' Remus was so fond of stared at him like some sort of deranged toy. Sirius whimpered.

"Perhaps I should floo Evans..."

The thought was quickly shunted away. The wedding was approaching at an alarming rate and she was just as likely to curse him as help him these days. Who knew planning a wedding was stressful!

"Okay Padfoot, one step at a time."

He walked over to his stack of Zucchini, the only thing he hadn't cut up, and tossed them into a pot of, finally, boiling water. He cast his mind back to what he had seen Remus doing and pulled out several bottles labeled 'all spice' and 'cayenne'. He dumped in liberal amounts of both before he began sneezing violently.

_Hmm... Seems I'm allergic to domesticity..._

He walked around the bottles carefully, not wanting to get too close. He was just about to start on the squash when a shuffling step broke his concentration. He turned quickly.

Moony was slumped in the doorway, his too bright eyes taking in the scene of destruction with what could only be amused horror.

"Moony, what are you doing up!"

Sirius was at his side in a second, an arm around the werewolfs waist to keep him from falling flat on his face. He could still feel the heat radiating off of Remus' skin, and he shuddered.

"I heard strange noises," Remus' voice was stronger at least. "What are you doing Padfoot?"

Sirius grinned at him sheepishly.

"Cooking?"

He waited for the disapproval he knew was coming. Instead, to his surprise, Remus burst out laughing.

"Cooking? You?" Remus doubled over with laughter, clutching his side and gasping in pain, but unable to stop. Sirius quickly steered him into the living room and got him settled on the sofa.

"S..s...sorry Padfoot!" Remus managed. "It's just..." He swept out a hand to take in the devastation before he once again collapsed in giggles.

"Oh, that's right," Sirius pouted. "Go ahead and laugh. And here I've been slaving over a hot stove..."

Remus, though it had seemed impossible mere seconds before, laughed harder. And soon Sirius had joined him. There is nothing in the world more infectious than the Moony Laugh. Only when his laughing turned to pained wheezing did Sirius calm down. He quickly began rubbing Remus' back, easing his breathing as the werewolf slowly got control of himself.

"Better?" Sirius whispered.

Remus nodded and looked up at him with shining eyes.

"Sirius..." There was something strange in Moonys expression. "Did you really try to cook for me?"

Sirius nodded, slightly ashamed of how badly it had gone.

The kiss took him by surprise. It was gentle and deep, the heat from Moonys skin quickly filling every part of Sirius' body. Remus tasted like honey and lemon and home. He pulled Remus closer to him, never wanted to let go. When they finally broke apart Sirius felt like his brain had turned to mush

"Thank you." Remus whispered, running his hand though Sirius' hair.

"Nargle..." Sirius replied.

Remus chuckled softly.

"Now who's Moonstruck."

Sirius didn't answer, he just kissed him again.


End file.
